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Canadian PC market hits all-time high
July 17, 2007
2006 was a good year for PC sales in Canada. In Q4 2006, total PC shipments broke the 1.5-million unit mark for a single quarter on year-over-year growth of 13.3 per cent, according to IDC's Canadian...
Dell sponsors contest—but enter soon
July 10, 2007
The third annual Dell Small Business Excellence Award is underway, but if you want to enter do it now: you’ve only got about 10 days.
The contest honours small businesses that are innovative in their...
Let 'em play: it turns out computer games are good for the eyes
June 28, 2007
Violent computer games are loud, gory and filled with fast action. They are also good for players’ vision, according to researchers at the University of Rochester.
Video games that contain high levels...
Grocery checkout: one b e e p, goodbye—Canadians want RFID chips on their carrots and oreos
June 19, 2007
Here’s the scenario: you’re just about finished the weekly grocery shopping. The cart is full, the kids are cranky. Instead of standing around while the cashier processes each of your 200 items, you...
Data explosion—each of us sent six exabytes of e-mail last year
June 7, 2007
Human beings are creating more information than ever before. Far more.
In 2006, the amount of digital information created, captured and replicated worldwide was equal to 161 billion gigabytes, or 161...
Ontario pumps $2 million into digital media education
May 30, 2007
The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) recently launched the Digital Futures Initiative, a new cross-disciplinary program funded by a $2 million annual investment by the Government of Ontario,...
“Where does the day go?”
Apparently, you're wasting it
May 25, 2007
Workers spend about 36 minutes per day, or three hours per week, attending to personal tasks at the office. However, employees aren’t as bad as the suits think: executives estimate their employees...
Lenovo ranks number one on Greenpeace list
May 23, 2007
Lenovo is the best tech company when it comes to green policies and practices, according to the Greenpeace 2007 Guide to Greener Electronics.
Greenpeace ranked Lenovo as the top out of 14 leading...
RIM vs. Palm
May 17, 2007
Sixty-four million smartphones shipped globally in 2006, according to research firm Canalys. In Canada, the fight for that market share comes down to two dominant players.
Research in Motion landed 65...
Canadian firms taking AIM
May 15, 2007
The London Stock Exchange’s AIM market is drawing a record number of Canadian companies, according to a study from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Thirteen new issues raised $425 million, exceeding the...
The Internet is not grey: survey
May 11, 2007
Adults older than 50 are, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the fastest growing demographic in terms of Internet use, but apparently they have not yet caught up to their offspring. A study...
Know a tech student? International competition opens
May 9, 2007
If you know a bright student in the communications, computer science or engineering field, point him or her towards the RAD Data Communications Web site.
The company recently launched an international...
Waterloo Region grabs three innovation awards
May 3, 2007
When Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty arrived at the Premier’s Catalyst, Discovery and Summit Awards to hand out trophies, three of night’s five innovation awards went to Waterloo Region.
Awards went...
IBM $5 million tech grant to fight crime
May 1, 2007
IBM is donating $5 million worth of new technology to create a crime prevention and analysis lab at Simon Fraser University. The donation will help law enforcement officials fight crime by...
Cellphone users won’t switch carriers—yet: poll
April 26, 2007
Canadians can now ditch their cell carriers and take their phone numbers with them, but most respondents to a recent survey plan to stay with their current providers for the foreseeable future.
The...
Save trees, invoice electronically: OB10
April 23, 2007
Invoices are traditionally pieces of paper that arrive in the mail and cause grief for those who have to pay up. A company called OB10 wants to fix the first part of that process by replacing paper...
Dell, RBC honour ergonomic diaper bag
April 17, 2007
Dell and RBC created the Small Business Excellence Award to recognize SMBs which “use information
technology to foster a competitive advantage and deliver superior customer experience.” This
year’s...
Everyone is after your confidential information: Symantec
April 12, 2007
The most recent Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec details a rise in data theft, data leakage and the creation of targeted malicious code for the purpose of stealing confidential...
B.C. building lands world-class green award
April 11, 2007
Our November issue highlighted the increasing number of Canadian buildings which are adopting smart and/or environmental technology. As a timely follow-on to that piece, the Operations Centre at Gulf...
HP top seller in hot notebook market
April 5, 2007
The worldwide notebook market grew 27.7 per cent year over year in Q4 2006, according to research firm DisplaySearch. Grabbing the lion's share of that growth was HP with 20 per cent market share....
Fuel cell revenues jump sharply worldwide
April 3, 2007
Total revenues for publicly traded companies in the global fuel cell sector were up 20 per cent to US$266 million in 2005, compared to the previous year, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers 2006...
Canadian firms becoming more tech savvy
March 29, 2007
While many studies point to a lack of tech implementation among Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a recent Cisco Net Impact SME Canada 2006 study found ICT infrastructures at these...
Cancel your bill, plant a tree
March 27, 2007
A Telus campaign began in 2004 promised to plant one tree for every shareholder who opted for an electronic version of the company's annual report or social responsibility report. That initiative...
The cold war isn't over, it's online
March 22, 2007
New research from McAfee concludes organized crime is creating a new generation of cybercriminals who use “tactics reminiscent of those employed by the KGB during the Cold War.” The study, which used...
Welcome to the information age
PS: Most information is useless
March 20, 2007
Middle managers spend more than a quarter of their time searching for information necessary to their jobs. When they fi nd that information, 50 per cent is wrong or has no value to them.
That bit of...
Job market improves across all tech sectors
March 16, 2007
Times are good for Canadian tech professionals looking for a new job, according to numbers from CATAAlliance and Monster Canada.
The Advanced Technology Employment Index climbed seven points in...
Consumers take charge
Deloitte’s top 10 tech report sees consumers taking over
March 14, 2007
Technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies have to adapt to a new marketplace in which consumers make all the important decisions, according to the 2007 edition of Deloitte’s Technology,...
Scandal, gossip and taxes
Yahoo! Canada’s 2006 what-we-cared-about list
March 9, 2007
The Yahoo! Canada 2006 Year-in-Review concluded Canadians care about hockey while Americans just want to follow the exploits of Britney and her equally vacuous gal pals.
The summary of overall 2006...
Tech market to get more competitive: IDC Canada
March 1, 2007
The Canadian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market will grow by four to five per cent this year, up from approximately $78 billion last year, according to a prediction from IDC Canada...
Execs work all the time. Employees take it a bit easier
February 22, 2007
Half of all Canadian executives check laptops or PDAs a few times during each week of vacation, according to a survey from staffing company OfficeTeam. Their employees, however, take vacations a...
Cell etiquette? What the @#&! is that?
February 20, 2007
Sixty-seven per cent of Canadian cellphone users admit to talking on their mobiles while they drive. Worse, 75 per cent of these people admit this auto chat makes them drive less safely A Palm Canada...
Be nice to tech employees. It takes six weeks to get a new one
February 16, 2007
If you lose an information technology (IT) employee it typically takes six weeks to replace him or her, according to a new survey by Robert Half Technology, a provider of IT professionals on a project...
Monitor employee e-mail. It’s good for the company
February 13, 2007
The U.S. survey, conducted by e-mail archive company Fortiva and Jeffrey Plotkin, a partner with the law firm Pitney Hardin LLP, found 63 per cent of those which have formal electronic communications...
What does your boss do all day?
February 6, 2007
Break up your petty squabbles, apparently
Covet the big chair, the corner office, the boss’ title and prestige? Well, don’t be too quick to accept
that promotion. It turns out executives spend about...
Lack of security experts put companies at risk: McAfee
February 1, 2007
The recent increase in government information-security regulations is causing staffing problems for companies, according to a recent McAfee study.
The report, commissioned by McAfee and conducted by...
King To-do
January 30, 2007
Think small-business tools, and tech goodies such as Wi-Fi laptops, thumb drives and cellphones
come to mind, but for time management and productivity, 58 per cent of small business owners rely on...
Ready to Rocket 2007 Blasts off with its top 25 list
January 26, 2007
Vancouver is home to many of Canada's most exciting technology companies. In a city where everybody seems to have a start-up of some sort, it can be very overwhelming attempting to keep tabs on the...
Outsourcing expanding beyond IT: CORE
January 25, 2007
Outsourcing is maturing as a business practice as organizations contemplate moving entire business processes outside of the organization, according to the Centre for Outsourcing Research and Education...
Happy Birthday Kensington security slot
January 22, 2007
In the latest issue of Backbone Magazine, we warn of the dire consequences of notebook theft, so now seems to be a good time to wish Kensington a happy 25th birthday.
Kensington's first product was...
From IBM Supercomputers to the Playstation 3
January 17, 2007
The I.S Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration tagged IBM to build the world's first supercomputer to use the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell B.E.) processor. The machine will be...
Canadians like biotech
January 15, 2007
The majority of Canadians, almost 80 per cent, support the use of products and processes that involve biotechnology and generally feel good about biotech, according to a survey from BIO-TECanada, the...
Cisco sues Apple for trademark infringement
January 12, 2007
SAN JOSE, CALIF. /CNW/ - Cisco(R) (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple, Inc., seeking to...
Apple announces the new Airport Extreme with 802.11n
January 11, 2007
Five Times the Performance & Twice the Range
MARKHAM, Ontario—January 9, 2007—Apple® today introduced the new AirPort Extreme®, a simple and elegant wireless networking solution delivering up to...
Salaries for administrative professionals to rise in 2007
January 11, 2007
TORONTO, Jan. 9 /CNW/ - Base compensation for administrative
professionals across Canada is expected to rise an average of 4.5 per cent in
2007, according to the recently-released OfficeTeam 2007...
Apple reinvents the phone with iPhone
January 10, 2007
MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 9, 2007—Apple® today introduced iPhone, combining three products—a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod® with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet...
Hiring Set to Increase: CIOs
January 9, 2007
Information technology pros will be in demand in 2007, according to a survey of chief information officers that found twenty-two per cent of executives plan to add IT staff in the next three months,...
Nokia & PLAN mobilize tech for Africa's Youth
January 9, 2007
Nokia is donating $1.35 million to Plan (known in Canada as Foster Parents Plan) to drive the use of mobile technology among African children and youth. The first stage of the project will focus on...
Podcasts Big With Canadian Boomers
December 29, 2006
The first large survey of Canadian podcast listeners has concluded that baby boomers, not youngsters, are the big market.
Podcast listeners in Canada are almost evenly split between men and women, 59...
India's mobile subscribers to rocket by 2010
December 15, 2006
China is hyped as the next big mobile-technology growth market, but numbers from The Diffusion Group indicate India's rise as a tech player will be as significant.
The number of mobile subscribers in...
African countries jump on .travel 'net domain
December 12, 2006
If you haven't heard of .travel yet, you may the next time you are planning a vacation or business trip. The new Internet domain was designed to make it easier to find location-based travel...
IT execs moving beyond cost cutting
December 7, 2006
A survey of worldwide IT executives concludes that yesterday's emphasis on saving dollars is being replaced by a focus on value and service improvements.
The survey of 847 IT leaders in France,...
IT profits to jump in 2006
December 7, 2006
Profits in Canada’s information technology and communications (ITC) industry are expected to be the highest since 1998, according to the Conference Board’s latest Canadian Industrial Outlook for the...
Work at PwC: travel, interesting projects, soccer shoes
December 5, 2006
Three hundred and fifty global employees of consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers gathered in Vancouver this past summer to play their own World Cup of Soccer tournament. Italy, however, did not...
Summer curiosities: OSAP, FIFA and Rock Star: Supernova
November 30, 2006
This past summer, Canadians were obsessed with the FIFA World Cup, reality TV and wrestling, according to Internet search stats from Yahoo! Canada.
The Yahoo! Canada Buzz Index report details searches...
Executives are banning iPods. Should you?
November 27, 2006
Thirty per cent of mid- to large-size Canadian companies have banned MP3 players, such as iPods, over worries the devices can be used to steal valuable corporate data, according to a study from Sun...
What do you do after winning an Emmy?
November 9, 2006
Play a game based on your show, apparently
On the night NBC’s The Office landed an Emmy for Best Comedy Series, cast and crew kicked back at the victory party by playing The Office Games mobile phone...
IBM runs half of world’s supercomputers
October 24, 2006
Two hundred and forty of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers sport an IBM label. According to the TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list, IBM’s Blue Gene/L system at Lawrence Livermore National...
Cruising today’s hot job market?
October 4, 2006
Here’s what not to do
The future for job seekers is looking quite bright. According to Deloitte’s 2006 CEO Survey, just about every North American tech CEO wants to increase staffing levels in the...
Canadian software industry healthy: PwC
September 29, 2006
Canadian software companies had markedly better financials in 2005 than in previous years, according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Of the...
Cool marketing play, part 2
September 25, 2006
We here at Backbone simply had to include this one: the Panasonic Battery Group recently launched a Neuter Your Bunny campaign (www.neuteryourbunny.com). According to Panasonic marketing director...
Cool marketing play, part 1
September 20, 2006
Back in 1906, Coca-Cola sold its fizzy water with the slogan “The drink of quality.” One hundred years later the company could update that sell-line to read “The notebook of quality,” at least in...
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Nav, with 3D maps
Navigon 7100
All GPS devices perform the same basic functions: supplying turn-by-turn directions and highlighting area restaurants, hotels, etc. So selecting your device comes down to deciding which extra features matter to you.
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Sounds of Japan
Why record just the visual when you can capture the sounds as well.
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